Experience: • Skateboards…bicycles…go carts…minibikes…and on to cars by the time I was 13 years old.
• Arrived at JBA: as a customer, I bought an 8.8 rear end assembly from JBA in 1986. Came to work full time at JBA in 2002.
• Favorite car: The 1959 Austin Healey 100-6 with a small block Chevy I built in high school.

Austin Bittle
Austin BittleOperations & Logistics Director

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Experience: • Began learning about cars via a 1966 Ford Fairlane 500XL with a 390
• Arrived at JBA in 1987 in a baby seat in the back of a Mustang SVO
• Graduated from Texas A&M like both my parents, my brother, and my grandfather
• Favorite Car: 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 SCJ

Kyle Johnston
Kyle JohnstonTire Center Manager

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Experience:

Born and raised in San Diego; graduated from West Hills High School in Santee

14 years experience at a nationally known tire center, working at six separate San Diego locations and rising to assistant manager; created and managed their Training Center to teach employees all about tires.

Favorite Car: “I love GTOs and two door muscle cars of all kinds.”

David Mercer
David MercerInventory Control/HP Parts Specialist + Service Writer

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Experience: • “Cars? It’s a family thing. My grandfather and dad were both mechanics. I raced as a teenager and drag raced a bit while in the Navy.”
• Served eight years as an aviation sonar warfare specialist
• Favorite Car: “I’m a MOPAR guy!”

Experience: • Born and raised in San Diego; graduated from Clairemont High School
• When I was five years old, my neighbors were always working on hot rods; I started working on tossed carburetors shortly thereafter
• Been working with J Bittle since 1999

John Elderhorst
J.ElderhorstMaster Engine Builder + Senior Machinist

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Experience: • ASE Certified Master Engine Machinist
• Began working on cars as a teenager
• Started working with J. in Texas 1980
• Arrived at JBA when it was located on Daggett Street
• Favorite cars: 1968 Charger; 1967 Buick GS and 1973 SD Trans Am

Experience: • In 1989, talked my father into fronting me $300 for a 1969 Chevy Chevelle with 105,000 miles on it and a flat cam
• Started at JBA a decade ago
• Favorite Car: Always love your first! That 1969 Chevelle! There’s about a dozen close seconds

Rusty Staley
Rusty StaleyPerformance Technician

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Experience: • Grew up in Peoria, Illinois and Topeka, Kansas; started working on domestic cars and hot rods with the next door neighbor as a kid; took shop classes and ‘lived’ at the race track as a teen
• Served our country in the United States Navy for 20 years
• 2018 Barona Speed Stock Pony Champion driving a 1974 Ford Pinto w/164 HP!
• Favorite Car: My 1971 Chevy Nova

Rick Ball
Rick BallPerformance Technician

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Experience: • Over 30 years in the high performance automotive industry
• Love working with turbos, nitrous oxide systems and all things that make cars go fast

Chris Maile
Chris MailePerformance Technician

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Experience: • “I got a car before I got a computer and I’ve been wrenching ever since!”
• Holds an Automotive Technician and Management degree
• “My dad bought mom a 1971 Mach I four-speed. Mom couldn’t drive it! When my dad, brothers and I worked on the car, he’d say we were doing it for mom but really it was for us. We called it ‘the bonding vehicle.’”
• Favorite Car: My 1968 Dodge Cornet 440